Der entgleitende Berg. Die Flutkatastrophe von Vajont im Spiegel transnationaler Expertisen, 1949–1971

De Pretto, Sebastian (2023). Der entgleitende Berg. Die Flutkatastrophe von Vajont im Spiegel transnationaler Expertisen, 1949–1971. Histoire des Alpes / Storia delle Alpi / Geschichte der Alpen, 28 Chronos

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As infrastructures, reservoirs are built by experts whose knowledge enables planning and construction. Such expertise depends on power relations that determine whose knowledge is relevant or negligible. Using the Vajont flood disaster (1963) as a case study, this paper shows the severe consequences of limited participation in power-based knowledge production around infrastructure projects. First, the article looks at how the scientists involved in the Vajont dam project disregarded the sources of danger that faced them during construction: what know-how helped them take the project further, and whom did they ignore? Subsequently, an insight into the transnational expert exchange after the flood disaster shows how civil engineers and geologists discussed the failure of their Italian colleagues based on scientific justifications. Mirrored by transnational expertise, the Vajont catastrophe appears as a fatal consequence of a technocratic development ideology in the age of High Modernity.

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